I finds these Churchill comparisons offensive.
To Thatcher. Give her her due: she fought three General Elections as a
Party Leader, and she won all three of them, before she was brought down
by means of a parliamentary coup.
Whereas he only came to power by
means of a parliamentary coup, he fought three General Elections as a
Party Leader, and he lost all three of them (the first while the War was
still going on), only returning to
office in 1951 with the support of the National Liberals, his own party
having taken fewer actual votes than the Labour Government that it
deposed. They were, however, both removed by their own party, which went
on to win the subsequent General Elections that it might otherwise
have lost in 1955 and would certainly have lost very heavily in 1992.
Longstanding readers might recall that I have an idea for a book called Eminent
Thatcherians, presenting the 1980s as exemplified by each of Sir Jimmy
Savile and the ghastly continuity from the 1960s, by Lady Diana Spencer
(the sometime Princess of Wales), by Sir Richard Branson as the
bridge between the Thatcher and the Blair Eras, and by Dr David Jenkins
and the ultimate inadequacy of liberal theology to provide a
sufficiently radical critique. Perhaps I should now get on and write it?
Think of it as on the To Do list. Be warned, though, that is rather a long To Do list.
The Churchill-Thatcher comparisons are all over the place in the dreadful American media. I wish more people on my side of the Atlantic knew about Clement Attlee and some of the other great British politicians of the past. We could definitely learn from their example.
ReplyDeleteIf I may ask, how is Attlee viewed today in the UK? I am very perplexed by some of the comments I have read on blogs about how bad the post-war era was.
I imagine these folks must be rather young. The data seems pretty clear that, especially for working people, the period from 1945-1979 was superior to 1980-the present. The unemployment figures alone are definitely in favor of the post-war era.
Keep up the great work!
Oh, depend upon it.
ReplyDelete